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EU to censure Ahern over rendition role

Wed, Jan 24, 2007, 00:00

Jamie Smyth

EU:The European Parliament is expected to censure
the Government strongly for allegedly failing to respond adequately
to the rendition of terrorist suspects by the CIA. The Government
rejects a report from the parliament as "political point
scoring".

The parliament will also urge the Government to set up a
parliamentary inquiry to investigate the use of Irish airports by
the CIA as part of its rendition circuit in a final report due to
be published next month.

MEPs investigating the illegal transfer and detention of
suspects by the CIA in Europe, voted yesterday to strengthen the
draft report's criticism of the Government, and specifically, the
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern. The report now notes
that Mr Ahern "failed to answer all the questions in relation to
the concerns that Irish airports may have been used by CIA aircraft
travelling to or from extraordinary rendition".

It also regrets the Government's decision not to follow the
advice of the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC), which
argued that the State should not rely solely on US assurances over
CIA rendition.

MEPs voted in the committee by 28 votes to 17 in favour of the
report, which is expected to be adopted at February's parliamentary
plenary session.

The final report is considerably tougher than the original draft
report prepared by Italian socialist MEP Claudio Fava. Amendments
to the text mean it now notes the absence of parliamentary scrutiny
of either Irish or foreign-based intelligence services in the
Republic and urges the Government to agree to launch a full
parliamentary inquiry into the use of Irish territory as part of
the CIA rendition circuit. It also calls for all CIA aircraft to be
banned from Irish territory unless the Government institutes a
proper random inspection regime at airports as recommended by the
IHRC.

At least one of the suspect aircraft identified in the report
stopped off at Shannon to refuel after taking part in the rendition
of Egyptian cleric Abu Omar, who has been detained without trial in
Egypt and subjected to torture. The report notes there were 147
stopovers made by CIA-operated aircraft at Irish airports between
2001 and 2005.

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The Government angrily rejected the amendments to the draft
report, which criticised 11 states including Poland, Sweden and
Britain for their role in CIA rendition.

In a statement Mr Ahern criticised the report for indulging in
"political point-scoring" and failing to acknowledge that he was
the first EU minister to raise the issue of CIA renditions at the
EU council of ministers and with the US on a bilateral basis.

"The suggestion, for example, that Ireland should institute a
ban on all CIA-operated aircraft is extraordinary, especially given
that Ireland is the only one of 27 member states to which this
recommendation is addressed," added Mr Ahern.

Last night, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties welcomed the
report and criticised the Government. "The Irish Government has
attempted to muzzle the work of this EU rendition committee, and
that has backfired," said director Mark Kelly.